I am not a professional chef but I grew one! My son is a Japanese hibachi chef and is considering going to culinary school. I don't think of myself as a cooking junkie either. I like hearing what other people cook to jump start my creative process to keep mealtime interesting and not always serve the same stuff each week.

junkie here. I went to cooking school (2 semesters) last year, but won't be going back. Not going to pay that kind of money (although it was pretty cheap, but still thousands of $$) to be insulted for another year by people that are intimidated by me. They are not the brightest bulbs in the box. I worked as a prep cook the first semester, but by Thanksgiving i was in a walking cast, destroyed my feet. Not sure what I'm going to do with my new schooling yet, but would like to feed people. Working on an idea with our church to do Sunday Suppers, inviting those in the neighborhood, folks that are clients of our food pantry, and congregation members, a mix of folks. In the meantime, I am going back to performing, playing gigs and doing musical play activities for very young children at home daycares.

We raised four kids (six years apart from #1 to #4) ... cooking became almost impossible when they reached junior high and high school ... I was always being the 'Mom Taxi' for activities ... so we ate a lot of food from the freezer section of Sam's Club.

Then came the years when we just ate out a lot.

Last autumn I decided I'd get back into the kitchen ... and it's been a delightful experience ... virtually every meal I've made I've never made before. I'm blessed ... I'm a SAHW (stay-at-home-wife) ... so time is not an issue & I can fiddle-fart around in the kitchen all day.

The kids (now grown & gone) are saying, "You never cooked meals like that for us!" Well, we were in the Navy back then & really could not afford such an open-ended food budget ... and also the 'Mom Taxi' thing.